When describing himself in that delightful introduction to The Little World of Don Camillo (1950), Giovannino Guareschi mentions his imprisonment, his mustaches, his political cartoons, his height, and (among other little things) a movie he's just made, called "People Like This." In Italian, that's GENTE COSI; and, though the 1949 movie was not a critical success in its day, it sounds to me from the description I was given that fans of Don Camillo and his creator might have liked it a lot. Unfortunately, the film--for which GG wrote the screenplay and dialogue--has pretty much disappeared.

Based on a series of ten stories GG wrote for Candido in 1948, the movie's plot centers on Gian, a young man who lives in the tiny mountain village of Trebiglie. The town's chief occupation appears to be smuggling, but no one is making a grand living. As in Don Camillo's little world, poverty reigns, but the people of Gian's village manage to live in peace with one another... until...

... a young schoolteacher rides into town on her motorcycle (!), bringing with her all sorts of political ideas (she's a communist) and stirring up unrest. And that's not all she stirs up.  Gian takes a more- than- political interest in her, but he's unable to do much about it; having been involved in a big fight with another group who want to build a dyke in the area (serious business in that time and place), he finds it "convenient" to leave town for awhile. He goes off to Milan, but the schoolteacher (who returns his feelings) follows in search of him, and soon they are united. They are happy for a time...

... but then, all of a sudden, she steals away without explanation! Gian returns to Trebiglie and discovers that his lover has left him because she is pregnant and wants him to have his freedom. But "freedom" is the last thing Gian wants; he is delighted with the news. Alas, though, his happiness will once more be short-lived. Gian and his friend Biondo go on another smuggling run, and Gian-- distracted by his good news-- is careless. He is shot by a customs agent and falls over a precipice. The schoolteacher and the parish priest are called to the place where he fell, and, as Gian lays dying, the priest marries the two lovers.

Evidently, says Alberto Guareschi, critics enamored of the then-in-vogue cinematic neorealism were not impressed by the limpid, poetic manner in which the bittersweet tale of GENTE COSI is told, and the movie failed to find a following. It's a shame that it disappeared so quickly, however, as one wonders whether it might have enjoyed some retroactive "coat-tail" success after the following year's release of the first of the popular "Don Camillo" films starring Fernandel and Gino Cervi...

Indeed, among the superficial similarities between GENTE COSI and the better-known Don Camillo films is that the little world of Trebiglie is also presided over by a friendly parish priest and Mayor (although the two aren't particularly at odds with one another). The priest, Don Candido (played by an actor named Camillo Pilotto) even addresses occasional comments to a religious picture-- but it's a painting of the devil, so I'm guessing the priest is not asking for advice!

And the Mayor, who is also the town barber, is portrayed by actor Saro Urzi, who went on to play a member of Peppone's entourage-- a barber!-- in all five of the Fernandel-Cervi Don Camillo films (in fact, in film #4, his character-- identified in some credits lists as Brusco-- even steps in as Mayor while Peppone's off being a Senator).

There is an Internet Movie Database entry on Gente Cosi; however, I submitted most of the data for it, so you won't learn much more there than you do from this page. :-)